Loyalists warning would-be rebels

Labour loyalists have warned would-be rebels that there was no mood in the party for a challenge to Gordon Brown as they sought to rally support for the beleaguered Prime Minister.

Mr Brown was in Normandy for the D-Day 65th anniversary commemorations, the day after conducting one of the most chaotic Cabinet reshuffles in recent political history.

But behind the scenes the political manoeuvring was continuing as rebel MPs plotting to oust him from No 10 weighed their prospects of gathering enough support to mount a successful coup.

The calls for party unity were led by new Culture Secretary Ben Bradshaw who warned that there was no mood among the party grassroots for a bruising battle over the leadership.

"I hope my Labour colleagues will now get the message from their Labour activists and supporters in their constituencies that they want people to rally round and unite and support the Government," he said.

Senior backbencher Tony Wright, the chairman of the Commons Public Administration Committee, said that after the drama of the past week, the party needed to get back to the business of government.

"What I'm hearing from people all around the country is that they would like people at Westminster just to stop it and get on with the business of government," he said.

"People are saying to us 'stop the infighting, stop the cabal-ing, stop the organising against the leadership.'"

Former party leader Neil Kinnock said that he believed that the rebels behind the so-called peasants revolt did not have the nerve or the numbers to mount a successful challenge.

"The so-called rebels are very few in number, not substantial and they lack the most critically important feature in democratic politics - what Churchill called intestinal fortitude - guts," Lord Kinnock said.